Expert group meeting on adolescent pregnancy
10 to 12 February 2009
How can countries reduce the number of deaths of very young mothers and their newborns? How can they improve the care for pregnant adolescents? And how can they prevent them from social exclusion? These are some of the questions that were discussed by 45 international experts and WHO staff from regions and countries at an Expert Group Meeting that took place in Geneva from 10 to 12 February 2009.
The participants discussed a Position Paper and worked on the identification of key actions for advancing WHO’s work in this area The key recommendations from the meeting included:
- Finalize and circulate widely the Position Paper
- Use the Position Paper to create short, practical policy briefs that could provide practical guidance at both a programmatic and regional level
- Strike a balance between advancing research on adolescent pregnancy, while moving ahead with an action-oriented agenda that responds to the needs of Member States, and
- Continue to strengthen cooperation across relevant departments in order to provide technical assistance and other support for addressing adolescent pregnancy prevention and care.
The meeting organized by the Making Pregnancy Safer Department (MPS) in collaboration with the Departments of Child and Adolescent Health and Development (CAH) and Reproductive Health and Research (RHR) built on previous WHO work on adolescent pregnancy.